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Not A Hydroxyl Ion posted:*I'm a huge Sanderson fan, for example. Not because I think his prose is great. It's not--it gets the job done, at best. Not because of his deep characterization--there isn't really any. Instead, I happen to enjoy the magic systems, the settings, and two-dimensional characters are enough for me. I wish more Rothfuss fans could acknowledge the same kind of stuff in his books Someone recommended Sanderson to me earlier in the thread, because I stated that I really enjoy the magic systems in Name of the Wind. I haven't checked it out yet, but the more I read about it, the more I'm convinced that it's absolutely a series for me. I agree on the point of Rothfuss thinking his books are "literature", and would rather he just release a pulpy little turd of a fantasy novel every so often that just deals with characters using sympathy cleverly, rather than whatever sprawling epic he ostensibly has planned for Doors of Stone.
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Feb 5, 2016 18:06
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Groovelord Neato posted:I can't quite grasp the "i like the magic system" as a reason to read a book. I like reading stories about people learning some sort of system, and then learning how to use that system in clever ways to solve problems. The example I have is sci-fi, but basically the entirety of Asimov's Robots series is about bending the interpretation of the 3 Laws of Robotics. It's fascinating to me to watch an author establish a system that makes sense when it's used in ideal conditions, and then introduce strange or extreme circumstances that force that system to be broken or used in a clever way. It doesn't happen very often in Name of the Wind, but there a few small, clever uses of it, and then the climax of the book has Kvothe pushing the system to its (or his, I suppose) limit. A good magic system does not a good book make, but it can make a good book great, and a bad book a real shame of wasted potential. Rothfuss is somewhere in between, I feel.
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Feb 6, 2016 16:19
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ChickenWing posted:I would like it to be noted that I love the poo poo out of these books, and yet it's oddly satisfying to see them eviscerated in such a fashion. Yeah, I enjoy NotW as well, but seeing it torn down by someone like Lamps is pretty great. Finally putting their petty nitpicking to good use. As far as the stone under running water thing, a sword being as deadly as something you might incidentally fall on isn't exactly intimidating.
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Feb 18, 2016 16:48
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^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Changing it to dangerous could also work. It's just close enough to a decent simile that it's easy to gloss over. jivjov posted:One can be intimidated by something that will kill you with no deliberate action on its part. Right, but so can a head-first fall down a flight of stairs, but I wouldn't describe a sword that way. And even a tornado, while not deliberate or sentient, is at least a force of some kind. It's acting, and that act is inherent to its existence. Saying something is sharp in a way that a stone under swift water is fine. Saying that it's strike is like falling in a fast river and striking the sharp stone is also fine. But comparing the sword in deadliness to the stone itself is a bit silly to me. Again, don't get me wrong, I really like Name of the Wind. It's a book that got me back into reading after years of reading basically nothing but comics. It was my favorite book until very recently when I started reading more sci-fi stuff. But having the attempts at prose and simile point out to me now shows me how much I glossed over or straight up ignored that type of writing in it. It's not good. It's not necessarily the worst, but it's also not good.
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Feb 18, 2016 17:18
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HIJK posted:A nitpicky obsession with a magic system's rules and regs seem to be the downfall of many fantasy books. I personally enjoy a nitpicking obsession with systems, and that's part of why Rothfuss appealed to me at first
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Feb 24, 2016 00:57
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I don't understand how just saying "I enjoyed it" isn't sufficient. I make no claims to its quality, and found some dumb little problems myself on a re-read without being someone who is a literary critic or English major. But overall, I still got joy out of reading it because it scratched a couple of particular itches. Do I make any claims to the quality of the writing? No, of course not. But I still feel like I can enjoy a thing that might be critically bad.
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Feb 29, 2016 15:59
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Nakar posted:It's entirely sufficient as a statement in and of itself. It's not much of an argument, so it's just kind of irrelevant to any critical process. A critical analysis can't change whether you enjoyed it, unless you hated it and it persuades you to try it again, or something, maybe, but your statement of having had a personal emotional response to the work doesn't demonstrate any greater merit in the work. Not that you're saying that, indeed you just said that you only speak for yourself, but for some people the argument goes to the effect of "I derived enjoyment from reading it, so something in the text must be meritorious," which doesn't follow. Okay, yeah, I see this point. Saying that there's literary merit to something like Kingkiller is different from just saying you enjoyed it. I get the argument now. However, I do wish it would stop. Please stop, jivjov. Don't let somebody else ruin your enjoyment of a book you so evidently love. I really like NotW, too, but I'm not going to mount a defense for it. Just let Lamps do their dumb thing. Everyone else in the thread is enjoying it.
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Feb 29, 2016 17:51
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When's the next Let's Read Critically coming out, you guys?
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Feb 29, 2016 20:11
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pentyne posted:Literally all these things are "teased" in the book then completely undercut by not happening because Kvothe has to go on another badass journey where he kicks rear end and seduces women. No consequence has yet been shown in anything Kvothe does (but apparently it will...at some point) so every single time he panics because he can't afford tuition there's no real sense of drama or character building because we as the reader know he'll come up with another "brilliant" scheme the ends up working despite any number or mistakes or pitfalls. I'm no literature expert, but I know that failure and hardship are never going to be a consequence really sucks any sense of tension from the story. I think that sort of ends up being my biggest problem, despite my enjoyment of it. It's set up like "Those legend you've heard aren't as true as you think they are", and so far, he's just as cool as his stories say. He got paid to attend University. He slayed a dragon. He hosed a fairy super well. He learned special karate from sex ninjas. At no point after he gets to University is he even sort of not the raddest dude around. If he killed the dragon by mistake, or maybe people just assumed he hosed real good because he wouldn't go into detail about his time with Felurian or the ninjas, then fine. But christ, he's exactly what his legend is so far. I feel like the ultimate point of the story will be that he doesn't think what he's done is as cool as it is because of one egregious mistake or something. Like, he let that one thing ruin his entire perception of himself. It'd be stupid, but I won't be surprised.
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Mar 1, 2016 21:06
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ChickenWing posted:Okay I'm using the wrong word for it then. I just know that most trilogies work like this: He also said pretty plainly that everything he's heard of himself in legends is, at best, half-truths. But so far that hasn't been the case. He's been super great at basically every endeavor he's undertaken. The only setbacks he's ever experience are monetary ones. He's a great magician, he's a great lutist, a lady killer, a silver-tongued linguist, an incidental namer, and a naturally gifted sex haver. He gets paid to attend University for his first semester. He performed malicious magic on a teacher, and wasn't expelled. He saved a woman from a burning building while also identifying the source of the fire. He scared off hired thugs by accidentally performing a highly-secret and difficult magic. He attempted to kill his primary moneylender by basically boiling her blood, and was back on friendly terms within a few chapters. He killed a dragon within, like, a year of first formally learning sympathy. He learned a secret ninja art like it was nothing. He was accepted into that secret ninja society almost as easily. The worst thing that happens to him after leaving Tarbean is basically when his lute breaks, but even that was solved pretty easy-peasy if I remember right. Maybe something worse happens in Wise Man's Fear, but I pretty genuinely don't remember much of that book outside of what I've already listed. I think he becomes somebody's ward, basically, and has another class struggle or something? And all of that drama revolves around money again, I think. He's constantly broke, and inept at interpersonal relations, and those are basically his only flaws. The only times he loses are times when there is money on the line. He almost gets expelled and would have to pay back the negative tuition he got, he breaks a lute string and can't afford to get it re-strung, he loses a chance at a sponsor, he gets his tuition upped and has to go to a loan shark, etc... I know it's not interesting to have your hero not kill a dragon, or to not be taught an ancient martial art, but putting a few stumbling blocks in his way that aren't that he can't afford a boat trip or has to buy a new horse something. Again, this is just me, and this feeling doesn't really kick in for me until WMF, so whatever. But as much as I like the book, I absolutely get where people are coming from.
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Mar 2, 2016 15:59
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The idea of "Kvothe the Bloodless" being chalked up to medicinal roots is the only thing that I can think of off the top of my head that has been a subversion of his assumed legend.
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Mar 2, 2016 17:56
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anilEhilated posted:AKA a lie. I'm not a member of the "let's lynch the author if he doesn't deliver a book on time" clique, but come on, at least try to be honest about it. JIVJOV NO! DON'T RESPOND TO THIS! DON'T DO THIS AGAIN! But yeah, he's not done the book, and I don't think it's realistic to think that we'll see Doors of Stone by the end of the year.
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Mar 2, 2016 20:04
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It might still work if all of Doors of Stone is about him being a vindictive poo poo comes back to bite him. So he's a strong, sexy karate wizard, but basically everyone he's ever known has abandoned him for having been a poo poo.
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Mar 4, 2016 22:40
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I know it's never going to be GoT level, but do you think there's a chance that a proper TV writing and editing staff can make the source material something more palatable to people? Like, obviously people who don't like the story at its core still won't be swayed, but what about people that turn their noses up basically on writing quality alone?
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Mar 18, 2016 13:59
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ChickenWing posted:I think it's already palatable to people. I continue to hold the opinion that a majority of problems with the book are higher-ended literary ones, and to the public at large they're still an enjoyable read. Plus unless you use the narrator's voice extensively throughout, we're not going to get any "sharp stone in swift water" metaphors. That's what I was thinking. Like, because it's television, you won't have the weird, half-baked metaphors, and the lack of flowery language can make it sort of a straight-up magic action show. At the same time, though, without the political intrigue and brutality and sex that happens in GoT, can it really stand as a straight-up magic action show? mallamp posted:I think it will be worse, the cliche plot elements will be more apparent without all the fat that surrounds them. Only chance it could be good was if it got GoT level budget indeed and awesome sets would distract people instead of prose/filler. The rights are with Lionsgate right now, apparently, so who knows how much money will get thrown at it.
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Mar 18, 2016 14:59
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jivjov posted:They'll probably age Kvothe up a bit for the show, much like they had to age everyone up for the Ender's Game movie. There has to be a better example of this than Ender's Game, because that wasn't a good movie. mallamp posted:It's a modern fantasy tv series, something like 'physical age' will be pretty irrelevant. All characters will be be played by embarassed models who are 23-30 but look like 19-year-old roleplayers in their badly fitting costumes I mean, Kvothe is supposed to be 15 by the time he's in University, right? And he's the youngest person there, IIRC. It can't be too hard to find a decent-enough ~15 year old to play him, and then exactly what you describe for basically everybody else.
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Mar 18, 2016 19:18
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jivjov posted:That was the first thing I could think of that had to radically change the age of a character, because there's no way you're getting 5-8 year olds to act in Ender's Game. I know you're not gonna get a real-rear end six year old to perform a dramatic role in a major motion picture, and also have them perform it well. At the same time, though, his age plays a pretty big role in the story. Having as big a gap between the ages in Ender's Game was off-putting. A sixteen year old wouldn't typically react the same way to things like missing his family and fighting a bully as a six year old would. By extension, the scenes end up playing differently. I'm not saying it can't be done. Game of Thrones did this for a few characters, as far as I know, and everything still works incredibly well. I'm just saying that some adjustment beyond just their ages needs to be done. TheIncredulousHulk posted:Unless whoever's in charge of adapting it really takes charge and changes a bunch of poo poo, a TV show version is probably just gonna highlight the flaws in the story because there's less poo poo to distract you from how little is happening at any given time With all of the Supernatural and Teen Wolf style stuff on TV right now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was still pretty successful despite this.
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Mar 18, 2016 22:10
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Solice Kirsk posted:But the worst thing of all, the absolute worst for me, is that the Chandrian get almost no background or information except for a couple of paragraphs like 30 chapters in the future. I agree with this. The Chandrian are such an afterthought, especially after the first book. I really thought they were going to be more of a present force as things went on, and that we'd learn more about them by the second book. But we still only know legends at this point, and those are functionally nothing. jivjov posted:Finished up my re-read of TNotW and WMF last night. I still enjoy them and make no apologies for enjoying them. You don't need to. Chase your bliss and whatnot. Don't let this start an argument again. e: I'm not saying that you're necessarily the one that starts them. I'm just sort of imploring the thread not to devour itself again.
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Mar 25, 2016 20:28
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anilEhilated posted:Well, it's the closest WMF gets to anything like overarching plot. That and the creepy obsession with Denna, which almost entirely replaces the Chandrian as a character motivation. CerealCrunch posted:Retards don't need to apologize for their disability. Come on now. No need for this.
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Mar 25, 2016 21:10
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I don't want to get the jivjov train rolling again, but I think it's less that we'll never see it, and more than we won't see it as soon as he's letting on. With multimedia deals in hand, there's really no way that he can't at least finish this much.
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Mar 28, 2016 19:48
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Isn't that becoming more common in writing, too? Like, they'll put Rothfuss' name in big letters to get people to look at it, and it'll be like: PATRICK ROTHFUSS With Turdis McWordis Even though the second guy probably did the finishing work? Or is that just unique to James Patterson?
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Mar 28, 2016 20:28
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Nakar posted:I wonder if that pen name is taken... Turdis McWordis is an official SpacePig original IP. Please do not steal.
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Mar 29, 2016 18:07
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Nakar posted:Oh, so you're the one finishing the series? Just tell us how it ends then Mr. McWordis. Turdis. Can I call you Turdis? Turd? Just Turdis is fine. The series ends with Kvothe burning basically all of his bridges and never finding the Chandrian. He spends all of his time and expends every resource he has just to find Denna, who is sad and vulnerable all the time and easy to take advantage of. He finally gets to have sex with Denna, but is so good at it that he kills her, so he vows never to have sex with anyone ever again. His friends do cool things that he isn't a part of, and Ambrose get his comeuppance in a way some might consider humorous. Everything else is a footnote, at best. Kote, having told his story and remembering his true self, surges back to his former self. However, his current body cannot handle it, and he crumbles to dust. Bast suffers a sadness of three parts, and blinks out of existence. Chronicler releases his book in 3 volumes, but at a much slower pace than he originally intended. The story's already finished, it's just stuck in editing hell, and the third volume will be out by the end of the year, he swears.
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Mar 29, 2016 18:41
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I think it'd be cool if they made the show about modern-day Kote/Kvothe dealing with the Skral or whatever, getting back to the form his legend says he was in, and leaving his past to the books. Like, here's a show about a mysterious enemy and a hero who seems weak but has power to spare. He also knows more than he lets on about the enemy he's facing, and sometimes they seem to know more about him than they arguably should. Do you wanna know more about the specific workings of sympathy? Or vague notions of the Chandrian? Or made up exchange rates? Then read the book.
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Mar 29, 2016 19:43
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Hey, jivjov. Serious question here, from someone else who is a fan of Name of the Wind. I know it's not like you could like the book more than you do, but do you really not think there are ways to improve the book? I'm not even talking from a point of writing style or prose or anything. Like maybe shorten the Tarbean section by a bit, or not going so in-depth with the in-universe folklore. Or maybe even spend a bit less time worry about exact amounts of change the Kvothe needs to get by. That's my opinion of things. As much as I enjoy the book, I feel that it's probably about a third longer than it needs to be, maybe more. It's a 600+ page book that probably could've been told in less than 400. I'd like to hear from you because you jump to its defense constantly, but never go any further than "It's a book I liked, therefore it is good".
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Apr 11, 2016 18:41
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e: What's wrong with the "world's smallest violin" thing? Is there something I'm missing?jivjov posted:There's certainly some room for tightening up, especially in Book 2. I like each "segment" of the story there, but the stuff in Severen and Ademere in particular could be trimmed down a bit. Off the top of my head, Kvothe could have gotten his Ademic name and his sword from the old woman at the same time without losing much, and back in Severen, every interaction with Bredon other than the first and last are not particularly important to the ongoing thread. See, that's sort of my biggest problem. It's not a character that has a later importance, like I'm sure Auri will be. It's stories about heroes that are ostensibly being told so that Kvothe (and the reader, I guess?) can know the implications of legends, and what they mean to people. Like, Kvothe is already learning that different societies tell the stories differently, and will probably eventually learn that the stories he was told were fabrications and half-truths, just like his own legends are in the present timeline. We don't need to hear every interpretation in full for that lesson to be impactful. Solice Kirsk posted:I would be happy if the Chandrian had anything to do with this story at all. Both them and Denna (the two things that we're supposed to think are the most important things driving him) have received little direct attention in the large scale of things. Which is telling because despite not getting a ton of book time I find Denna incredibly boring as a character and possibly the most boring aspect of the series so far. I was torn for a second between saying whether I'd write her out entirely or not, thinking that she was the reason for one of my favorite parts of the book. When Kvothe goes to that wedding that apparently got wiped out and fights the dragon, I thought that was really great. Not only was it a good application of the magic system in a fairly exciting fight, but is also gives another glimpse of Kvothe becoming the legend he is by literally slaying a dragon. But then I realized Denna wasn't the reason he was there, it was the Chandrian implications of the attack on the wedding party. Running into Denna was just a happy accident. I get the feeling Denna will be linked to the Chandrian somehow, like her patron will be one of them or something. Who knows?
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Apr 11, 2016 19:14
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Is there conversation around the violin motion that I'm not remembering? Because a sad violin motion from a book that gives such weight to music doesn't seem that out of place. Hell, even the jerkoff motion wouldn't be entirely out of place in a male shared living space full of children. Violins and jerking off both ostensibly exist in this universe. It seems like a weird thing to pick on.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:49
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:In other words, it's more evidence that Rothfuss hasn't written a intelligible setting that's used to tell a story, but a grab-bag of motifs that don't make much sense together. It's the same thing as the Inquisition operating a few days away from wizard school. I actually agree with this, and feel like Solice in that I haven't been able to put my finger on it. I still enjoy the book, but the more I think about it, the more it just kinda seems like an amalgam of semi-interesting ideas that I like individually. It's more or less the reason that the second falls apart. That said, someone pantomiming something to represent a sarcastic sadness doesn't really feel out of place to me, and doesn't seem inconsistent at all. BravestOfTheLamps posted:*Speaking of Renaissance inventions, when will clocks be mentioned again? I haven't noticed them since Chapter 26. Aren't there "sympathy clocks" about? You pick some weird things to pick on. Why would they need to be mentioned again? It just basically establishes that there's a way to know a precise time so that it doesn't seem weird to have someone say "Meet me at this time" and such without having to give it in phases of the sun.
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Apr 12, 2016 16:55
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:I have posted extensive quotations. You're posting quotations because you're actively reading the book right now, and have them handy. Anybody besides jivjov probably isn't reading it right now, and can't recall from memory exact quotations to refute you. Also, what is the next chapter? I can't remember the exact order of events, and I'd like to know which section you're getting to here that you think might pass muster in your system. Kvothe getting his pipes? Elodin's class where Kvothe experiences difficulty with something for the first time?
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Apr 18, 2016 16:21
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jivjov, please. I sympathize, man, I really do. I don't necessarily agree with everything he's posting about the book, even if it seems otherwise. I'm just interested in hearing a full, critical reading of it. I'm also looking forward to ChickenWing doing the same from another perspective. But you really need to pick a better hill to die on, here. BotL isn't really wrong. Underprivileged isn't the same as poor, even if they're incredibly similar. He's constantly broke, and functionally homeless, sure. But he's also good enough with the lute to pay for his housing, good enough a performer to worm his way out of any social situation, and good enough at sympathy (by merit of one-on-one sessions with a guy good enough to know the name of the wind) that the university pays him to attend. He has a bunch of things at his disposal, including attending a prestigious magic academy that basically has every amenity he could ever need, he's just very bad at making use of them. He's only smart when there's no real consequence to him being wrong. He's only strong-willed and driven when there's no obvious way to weasel a way around a problem. He's very rarely actually clever, usually just using false bravado or preying on people's emotions and such. His decision making shows this pretty much constantly, sort of coming to a head with the whole thing where someone has his blood. He get by almost entirely by being a good magician with a fake personality, and when his real personality comes through (see dealing with Ambrose, fighting Devi), it ends up that he's a stupid dick that thinks the world is out to get him. Rothfuss tries very hard to present him as the underprivileged but clever hero, but he doesn't do a great job of it. It can be interpreted that way, sure, but there's not much in the text itself to use to support that. An important thing to remember is that this book is presented as having been dictated from him to the chronicler. This could mean pretty easily that a lot of things are fabricated in a way, like Hemme's reactions to him, or the way Ambrose spoke to him, or even how actually good at sympathy he actually is. He thinks he's clever and smart, but he might not be. It's like when you hear someone talk about the time they totally owned some idiot at the grocery store. Also, please keep in mind that just because a book is popular doesn't mean that it will hold up to critical literary analysis. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but that's honestly the case.
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Apr 18, 2016 19:30
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Jerkface posted:Would the story have been improved if Kvothe was denied entry to the Academy, still had to pawn all his stuff for whatever reason he had to, and ended up a street busker in the outlying town instead of a student on scholarship? I don't think so. Others have already said it, but the Tarbean stuff is already enough street urchin story, and even that much wasn't handled well. Combining the two might be interesting, though. He applies, and is denied, but then, instead of listening in on a single day's admissions, he listens in for years, learning not only the answers to the questions, but the personality of each master. He'd learn how to deal with each of them, and how to impress each individually. It'd make his eventual attempt at enrollment even more of a cakewalk than it was. This could also be inter-woven with meeting Auri, where she shows him not only how to survive there, but also how to hide there without ever being caught. Get him to live reasonably as a vagrant, and then have that influence his time as a student, making him view different aspects of the education in earnest differently. Hell, this could even have him interact with Elodin before ever attending the place, since we know he cares for her in some capacity. There's a way to make it interesting, but not so long as the Tarbean section exists. Besides, him being at University in the first place isn't the problem. It's basically that he never appreciates this fact, and doesn't change or grow as a result. He gets in with a net gain in funds, and is elated for basically the amount of time it took him to buy a shirt and a lute. He always acts as if he inherently deserves to be there, rather than it being something that he worked to earn. He commits malfeasance on a teacher because he he's above the class, and makes it through without being expelled somehow. He sneaks into the library after he's been banned because he deserves to be there, and is never caught or punished for sneaking in. He works with materials beyond his rank because he deserves it, and is only briefly banned from the workshop. He gets punished occasionally, but never to the level that he should. There is a scene where he tries to boil a woman's blood inside her body, and is back in her good graces within a few chapters. Everything but money comes easy to him, but he still feels the world is out to get him because he doesn't have two coins to rub together. It make him difficult to get invested in. Ravenfood posted:He just snaps out of a PTSD-induced fugue state because he decides to and then never has any residual issues nor does he ever think about the fact that he could have been doing sympathy his entire time in Tarbean and just forgot to. But he's ~~so practical ~~ Yeah, I never really realized how sort of jarring this was. I remember thinking at the time that it was weird that he never did any sort of sympathy there, but it's waved away by the PTSD thing. Then there's no arc of anything, just a switch going off. I'm slowly realizing that I might not like this book as much as I think I do, just sections of it.
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Apr 19, 2016 14:47
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Solice Kirsk posted:Do you guys think the series would have been better served as a series of small short stories, maybe a few chapters long each, told by Kote to Chronicler with more present day interactions and more nods to "jumping around" because the known bits of the story are close to factual? That way we get it broken into sections instead of it trying to piece together all these different parts? I actually like this idea a lot. You could frame it as the Chronicler asking about a particular legend or something. That'd be pretty interesting.
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Apr 19, 2016 17:17
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:I am the first person to ever enjoy reading Kingkiller. You can't say that with jivjov around.
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Apr 22, 2016 00:40
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boneration posted:I'd unironically love to read a similar level of effort by someone who likes the books/thinks they are good. BotL's five pages at least have some effort put into them, Jivjov's five pages are just "well I liked it and that means it's good". ChickenWing has expressed interest in doing this: ChickenWing posted:You know BOTL, you've inspired me. Once I finish the book I'm currently reading, I think I'll try doing a counter-analysis alongside you where I give my dirty plebian opinion on the book in the same sort of chunks as you do. We'll see if reading your critical analysis doesn't infect my otherwise excellent opinion of this book on another read. And I hope they follow through with it.
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Apr 22, 2016 03:20
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Solice Kirsk posted:Him? He's really funny.
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Apr 24, 2016 15:42
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^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ e: (Had the reply window up for awhile.)Oh, christ, I forgot about that. Okay, yeah, that's a bit weird. Wait, did I miss something? I don't remember Auri ever having been sexualized. Hell, I even forgot that she was supposed to be older than him. I've always thought that he interactions with Kvothe were cute, and was expecting a lot more from Slow Regard. If you folks who like Rothfuss want to see why people might think he's a bad writer, read Slow Regard of Silent Things.
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May 9, 2016 17:37
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ChickenWing posted:It's me I'm the goon who liked the Bad Book. I really enjoyed how it fleshed out Auri and made me enjoy her character that little bit more. I felt this way about it in the beginning, and then it just kind of kept going. It felt 3 times longer than it actually was or needed to be. Slow Regard is something that would've been better served as a standalone graphic novel or something.
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May 9, 2016 19:58
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ChickenWing posted:I'll admit that I didn't like it as much as NotW or WMF, but I still got really caught up in it. I dunno. Clearly my good-dar is broken. I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong for liking it or anything. Hell, I've defended jivjov here in the past. I guess I'm phrasing things a bit argumentatively lately.
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May 9, 2016 20:02
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I also really like Auri, but it's a liking that comes from sort of forgetting certain things about her. I always forget that she's supposed to be a grown woman who is also a victim of rape, and not somebody maybe a year or two older than Kvothe who burnt their mind out mentally. I forget these things because they're never important to her character, or her interactions with Kvothe. She's got the backstory of a tragic character, but is instead written as an anime cat girl. Auri is a cute character that ostensibly serves as a warning for Kvothe after just having a chapter about sympathetic burnout, but who has a tragic past tacked on so that she's not just a whimsical fairy child that he happens to meet.
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May 10, 2016 15:30
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 12:21 |
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ulmont posted:Her implicit backstory - student who burned her brain out but either escaped from or wasn't quite badly enough off to be sent to the Rookery - in The Name of the Wind is better than anything added in Slow Regard. Exactly. She was an interesting enough character without Rothfuss trying to have to make her interesting. To why/how she might be important, my best guess is that she'll be an example to point to for when Kvothe turns to Kote. He'll burn himself out trying to impress Denna, will scurry back to University to look for help, and will only have Auri to lean on. She teaches him a trick or something to at least keep his mind from dying entirely, and he uses "unremarkable business owner" as a touchstone, in place of Auri's "sing-song fairy woman". SpacePig fucked around with this message at 18:23 on May 10, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 18:20
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